Published 6:30 am, Tuesday, February 8, 2005

Houston and Rice will open this year's Silver Glove Series on Feb. 15 at Cougar Field. It will mark the eighth year the best-of-five series has been played, with Rice taking six of the previous seven.

Noble, beginning his 11th season at UH, will field a young team that has been picked by Baseball America to finish fifth in Conference USA. Graham, starting his 14th year at Rice, has an experienced team that has been projected by league coaches to win the WAC.

But Graham knows that Houston, which last took the season series in 2000, will be motivated to beat the Owls.

"All these kids grew up with each other, so they're not awed by each other at all," Graham said. "They all want to win because while they all like each other, they're all very competitive. They're athletes.

"It's really a good thing competitively because it makes everybody better."

Noble agreed.

"There's a lot at stake," Noble said. "We all want to be the team in the city. I don't care what you're doing, when you have to share the limelight with someone else, sometimes that's not what you want.

"We go out there with that in mind. We want to be the team in Houston, just like they want to be the team in Houston, and that's what's created this great rivalry."